This aerial image documents the flood of 1947, the floodwaters encircling the Ralston plant at 150 S. McCamly. The Easter Sunday flood displaced hundreds of residents, many of whom had to flee by boat, and probably led to the flood control project of 1957 and 1958. It wasn't the first flood to hit Battle Creek, which had experienced severe flooding once every 10 years on average, but a growing population meant more businesses and houses had to be cleaned out and repaired. The flood control project — much celebrated at the time but today remembered for its destruction and displacement of a African-American neighborhood known as The Bottoms — included the dredging and diversion of the Kalamazoo River.